ANSTADT PRINTING — DRIVING TOWARDS DIGITAL

LIKE MANY commercial printers, Anstadt Printing of York, PA, has faced—and continues to encounter—new challenges. The fourth- and fifth- generation family owned and operated independent printer has been in business for 128 years. But, to keep pace with today’s customer demands, Anstadt needed to change with the times.

Anstadt Printing was founded in 1878 as The Anstadt Co. by the Reverend Peter Anstadt. He started the company by printing and publishing a Sunday School Teachers’ Guide. Since then, the establishment has continued to offer more services and add new capabilities.

Now entering its fifth generation of family ownership, the company’s management includes its chairman, Henry Anstadt, who has been with the business for more than 40 years, and its president, Matthew Doran. Anstadt employs 35 to 40 people, including full- and part-time staff.

Recently, the firm began experiencing an increased demand for high-quality, short-run color work that was difficult to competitively produce on its two- and five-color sheetfed offset presses. To handle a wider range of jobs, Anstadt acquired a Presstek 5634 DI digital offset press in May.

With its on-press imaging of plates, fast-drying waterless inks, automation and 300-line screen printing, Doran decided it was a logical investment. The company is now producing more applications using the DI in conjunction with its traditional five-color offset press on the same project.

Prior to acquiring the Presstek unit, the firm was producing jobs of varying run lengths on its five-color press. Pricing structures were geared to making it easy for Anstandt estimators to price a variety of work competitively. But, oftentimes, Anstadt had to turn away the longer runs.

“We could not afford to tie up the press on a 150,000 quantity job because it meant we wouldn’t be able to produce the myriad of other short- to medium-run jobs customers needed in a hurry,” Doran recalls.

Almost all medium- to short-run jobs up to 20,000 are now produced on the DI press, Doran explains, with the five-color dedicated to longer runs. Additionally, Anstadt is frequently using both presses on a job—with the DI press producing color covers, and the five-color press outputting the interior.

Doran cites examples of quantities of 500 to 1,000 75- to 100-page catalogs that Anstadt is able to produce more quickly, efficiently and profitably using the presses in tandem. “We never would have been able to do that work with toner-based digital printing because of the high-quality covers that the customer requires,” he notes.

The DI press has also opened up new opportunities for Anstadt in terms of the way it runs its press proofs, as well as offering the ability to do more test marketing pieces.

“I was recently speaking at a design firm staff meeting about the DI press and how it could be used for press proofs,” Doran recounts. “Even if a job will ultimately be run on the five-color press, because both presses are fingerprinted to the same standards, we feel confident running proofs on the DI press. One of the designers noted, ‘Do you realize how great that is for us as designers, to know that we have an option like that?’ ”

As a testament to the quality of its product, Anstadt has won a number of awards including, most recently, four awards from the Graphic Arts Association—three Franklin Awards for Excellence and one Best of Category.

The company also goes beyond print to offer its customers a variety of value-added services. Anstadt Online, for example, was established in 2003 to provide Websites that are customized and branded individually for each customer. Anstadt has more than 30 clients utilizing Anstadt Online and has processed more than 2,000 orders through the system in the first half of 2006.

Creative by Design
Anstadt also provides graphic design as a supplementary service for its clients to assist in times of peak workloads. Its prepress workflow is direct-to-plate—and has been since 1998. On the back end, complete finishing capabilities include diecutting, foil stamping, and embossing.

Another Anstadt service is assisting clients to determine and execute the best route for getting materials to their intended users. Whether a project requires mailing and fulfillment or calls for shipping by the most efficient and effective means, Anstadt offers whatever is necessary to complete the tasks.

Doran especially notes a major market demand for short-run color output. “Not only do we continually read about run lengths declining in a big picture sense, we are also experiencing that trend with our clientele, both large and small,” he stresses. “They no longer want to print long runs and then store them on the shelf. We’re also seeing a demand for faster turnaround times.”

Based on these observations, Doran knew Anstandt Printing needed to address its ability to competitively produce short runs with fast turnaround times, yet maintain the high level of quality its customers have come to expect. The Presstek 5634 DI press is now fulfilling that need.

“We are known in our market for high-end printing,” Doran assesses. “Through an end-to-end process we help our customers manage, communicate and deliver their messages effectively and efficiently through print.” PI